India is one of the few countries where Amnesty International did not have a country office - except for an ephemeral period a few years back. The international human rights organisation has just launched operations in India, with a country office based out of Bangalore. Country director Ananthapadmanabhan Guruswamy speaks to Subir Ghosh about the organisation’s immediate and not-so-immediate plans, the human rights situation in India, and of course Kashmir, Northeast and Vedanta - issues on which it has remained engaged.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

First things first. What is it that brings Amnesty International back?Amnesty International is not “coming back” to India, it has always been here. What we are doing is scaling up our presence in the country, recognising India’s emergence as a global player which faces certain unique challenges in terms of seeking a path of economic development that does not overshadow human rights, but sees them as vital to inclusive development. So we are establishing a new office in Bangalore, setting up research and campaign teams, and ramping up our presence on the ground, in line with Amnesty International’s push for a more vibrant presence in the developing world.

That’s not to say that Amnesty hasn’t been active in India. We’ve campaigned with success on the environmental and human rights impact of Vedanta’s bauxite mine and aluminium refinery in Orissa, the misuse of the Public Safety Act in Kashmir, and the rights of the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy. We want to start work in other areas and also begin a new human rights education programme in schools. We are expanding our presence here because we want the country to emerge as a genuine human rights champion at the global stage. But then, what is it that had made Amnesty International leave India in the first place? How have things changed? Were there lessons to be learnt?In our earlier stint, we did not focus enough on building Indian membership. Our research didn’t garner enough public support, and we could not build a constituency to support our research and campaigning. So we remained dependent on our global network for funding. However in our second journey, we plan to raise resources from individual members and donors in India. We want to grow roots in the country, and have our India office be funded by Indians. Some of us have considerable experience in building such a constituency around the issues of environment and education. So we are confident that we will be able to mobilize supporters among the growing ranks of socially conscious middle class citizens, and make our programs sustainable. At a time when freedom of expression in the country is under attack from all quarters, including various agencies and ministries of the Union government, it does come as a surprise that the State would allow Amnesty to work in India once again. How do you react to that?I am proud of the fact that we belong to the world’s largest democracy, and we do not officially need “permission” to start an organisation. However, if it wants, the Government of India can exercise control over us by restricting our ability to be financially supported by the global Amnesty Movement. Rather than thinking of this as a problem, we are taking it as a challenge. We aspire to have 50,000 members in two years, with each of them paying a small membership fee that will enable us to become sustainable entirely through the support from Indian members.

Amnesty is not just an organisation, it is a movement of people seeking to voice their rights and bring about a change to end human rights violations. We have already been welcomed by a number of opinion makers, and we believe that in a country like India with strong democratic traditions, we would be able to establish a wide base with the support of people like you and millions of other Indians keen to become part of this global human rights movement. Ok, so now that you are back, what are going to be your focus areas? Would that be issue-driven or region-driven? Would you continue to focus on Kashmir or the Northeast i.e. regions you have dealt with earlier? What about the heartland where the government is locked in a Pyrrhic war with Maoists?Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution of India and international human rights standards. We will strike a balance between burning human rights issues and constructive long-term work.

We will expand our work on the impacts of mining on environment and human rights, the rights of Indigenous Peoples and rights violations in Kashmir. We intend to initiate work on the situation of undertrials in the country who face extraordinary long incarcerations because of lacunae in the criminal justice system.We will invest a large amount of energy on human rights education in schools, with the aim of creating a culture of respect towards human rights in all areas of school life. Our programme will use the space created by the Right to Education to target disparity and discrimination of children, while strengthening the base for promoting the values of equality, dignity, respect to enhance potential and secure opportunity, especially for the marginalised and underprivileged. One of Amnesty’s best-drafted / researched reports was about Operation Bluebird. It’s exactly 25 years since Operation Bluebird. Do you still want to work on the AFSPA issue? Why do you think human rights / civil liberties organisations have not been able to see to it that the AFSPA is repealed?We will definitely continue to work on repealing AFSPA. The fact that there has been a change in public sentiment over the last 25 years, and large sections of civil society and even the government today acknowledge the need to repeal AFSPA is to the credit of all human rights groups working relentlessly on the issue. It is only a matter of time before the goal is met and the Act repealed. What made you choose Bangalore of all places? Everything happens in Delhi. So if you are going to work on advocacy, wouldn’t Delhi have been a better place? When do you plan to launch officially? Are you planning to peg it to any event?Weather (smiles). But seriously, I would like to challenge the notion that everything happens in Delhi. India is a vast country, and working on human rights issues from outside the capital can help us develop a different perspective. Greenpeace is based in Bangalore, yet it is able to facilitate significant changes in the field of environment. Advocacy is only one of the many things that Amnesty does. It is primarily a movement which works through the power of people and penetrative research, which does not have to be restricted to Delhi. It is time that more organisations thought about the rest of the country.

Bangalore, with its large and growing middle class population, is increasingly becoming a hub of action and activism. We are also focussing on the digital medium for our campaigns, and Bangalore is a great location to mobilise net-savvy citizens. Our supporters in Bangalore are likely to be young people informed about human rights issues, who believe in and can bring about change. Also, given the cosmopolitan nature of the city, our supporters would be representative of almost all parts of the country. How is it going to look on paper? Would Amnesty India be directly under Amnesty International? Or will it be a totally Indian organisation with some kind of arrangement / affiliation with Amnesty International? Would you be working closely with human rights organisations in various parts of the country?Amnesty works in 74 countries around the world. It is a global movement whose work is strategically coordinated through an International Secretariat based in London. As part of Amnesty’s efforts to move its work to the ground, we will be working creatively with the IS. We see ourselves as part of the ecology of organisations in the country that work on rights issues, we will be working closely with several human rights organisations. Lastly, you wouldn’t have launched without doing your homework. How desperate is the human rights situation in India today?India, along with other emerging global powerhouses like Brazil and South Africa with newly-gained bargaining power on the world stage, needs to take the lead on human rights issues. If we consider rights like the right to health, sanitation and education, we are still miles away from being where we want to be. There definitely has been economic progress in the country, but it has been restricted to a very small section of the population. One advantage we have lies in the strength of the Constitution of India’s commitment to fundamental human rights.

We are inspired by the fact that despite widespread human rights violations, people in India have been and will continue to stand up for what is right, and bring about positive change.